Page 76 of Twice Shy

“He’s out back.” She slid off her stall. “I’ll get him.” Her gaze drifted down to Luis, who was looking angelic this morning and nothing like the teething monster he’d been this past week. “Hey, cutie, aren’t you gorgeous?”

Luis, taken by a fit of shyness, tucked his head into the side of the stroller. Ollie laughed. “You’re making him blush.”

Smiling, Danita disappeared into the shop behind the counter and a couple minutes later Alfie strolled into the reception area cleaning his greasy hands on a rag. He was an impressive guy even in his overalls, with a friendly smile and a smattering of dark stubble across his jaw. Not exactly Ollie’s type, but undoubtedly attractive. “Hey,” Alfie said. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“Are you kidding? Thank you for keeping my car here and…” He shrugged, not sure yet what Alfie might propose about fixing it.

Alfie jerked his head back toward the shop. “Let’s go take a look.” He glanced down at Luis. “Will he be okay if you leave him here? Dani can keep an eye on him.”

“Sure,” Danita said, coming around from behind the counter and crouching in front of the stroller. “What’s his name?”

“It’s Luis.”

“Hey Luis…” She picked up the board book attached to the stroller by a piece of curly plastic cord. “What’s this? Is this your book? You wanna read it?”

Luis’s shyness abated, and he said, “Book,” and grabbed it with his chubby fingers. “Book…”

“Yeah, it’s your book…”

Ollie glanced at Alfie. “Shall we take a look?”

His battered car looked pretty much as he remembered, the front fender crushed in so far that the metal was digging into the tire. “The thing is,” Alfie said, “the impact has bent the frame. You can see here”—he tapped on the driver’s window—“where the inside paneling has been pushed up. I could straighten the frame but…”

“But what?”

“But it would probably cost more than buying another car. Sorry, man.”

Ollie sighed heavily. “Right.”

“I’d be willing to make you an offer for scrap value, if you like.”

Running a hand through his hair, Ollie nodded. “Thanks, that would help, I guess. I just— Getting the cash together for another car right now is—” He blew out a breath and stopped himself; this wasn’t Alfie’s problem.

After a pause, Alfie said, “Is that Joel Morgan’s car you’re driving?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“I thought so.” Alfie smiled at him. “Don’t look so shocked, he charges it here sometimes. And I serviced it when he first bought it back in the summer. I’m not so familiar with electric cars, so it was a learning curve. Interesting, though. The way of the future, I guess.”

“I guess.” Not that Ollie wasn’t concerned about carbon and particulate emissions, but right then he was more concerned about the conclusions Alfie might be drawing. “Joel, uh, loaned me his car for a while.”

“You guys are friendly, huh?”

“We’re—” Heat crept into his face. He wasn’t used to lying about this stuff. In fact, he’d made it a point of pride never to lie about it. “That is—”

Alfie cut him off with a raised hand. “Hey, none of my business, man. Sorry, shouldn’t have asked. Joel Morgan seems like a decent guy. I don’t know him well but… Well, good of him to let you borrow his car.”

“I can’t borrow it forever, though.” Ollie stared morosely at his own car. “But if this isn’t fixable…”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t fixable. I could work out an installment plan for payments, if that would help.”

“That’s…” Ollie glanced at him. “Unusual for an auto shop.”

“Hey, everyone needs a break sometimes, right? I believe in paying it forward.”

Touched by the kindness of this man who was virtually a stranger, Ollie felt his throat tighten. “That’s pretty decent of you.”

“No problem. How about I get prices for parts and put together some figures—including how much I could pay for scrap value. And then you can decide what you want to do.” His face scrunched into a frown. “To be honest, we’re looking at after Christmas at this point, though. That okay? You going to be able to use Morgan’s car until then?”

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